The wife of Srinivas Kuchibhotla, the Indian man who was killed in Kansas city in February 2017 in a hate crime, has been invited to attend United States President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address, PTI reported on Friday. The event, which will be held on January 30, is an annual message presented by the US president to a joint session of the Congress.
Adam Puriton, a Kansas City man, had yelled “get out of my country” before shooting at two Indian men – Kuchibhotla and Alok Madasani – on February 22, 2017. While Kuchibhotla died in the hospital after the incident, Madasani and bystander Ian Grillot who had tried to intervene were injured.
Sunayana Dumala will be a guest of Kevin Yoder, her area Congressman and a member of the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans. “The shooter’s bullet destroyed her husband and broke her so deeply that we had to ... show him that he didn’t break our community,” Yoder told The Kansas City Star. “We had to let the world know that Kansas City, Kansas and America are welcome to immigrants.”
The Kansas incident had deepened fears that immigrants were facing persecution in the US, especially after President Trump’s campaign against them. The shooting had prompted the Indian government to seek an explanation from the US administration.
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